


Trails

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2020-03-05 08:09:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18824653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Willow takes Jay out for a Jorvegian tradition. Willow belongs to willownorthbook and Jay belongs SpaceUnicornDot.





	Trails

**Author's Note:**

  * For [willownorthbook](https://archiveofourown.org/users/willownorthbook/gifts), [SpaceUnicornDot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceUnicornDot/gifts).



It wasn’t often that Willow took the initiative to organise a date. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to- she loved Jay more than she ever through it was possible to love a person. It was just… usually Jay was the one to organise dates, just because he loved her so much. And they were always spontaneous, if only because of his natural Pandorian inclination to ignore and even outright detest time, so Willow was never sure if she should organise dates. And there was always so much to do, and…

But today, it was Willow who was waiting for Jay in the kitchen in the morning, Rune and Brownie swirling around her feet while she cooked breakfast for her beloved.

“Morning,” said Willow, smiling up at him. Jay echoed her smile, and her heart pounded at the slight upward curve of his lips. How had she been lucky enough to land the handsomest man in Jorvik? And probably in Pandoria, to be fair.

“Good morning,” said Jay, leaning in to give her a kiss. “You’re up early.” He looked concerned, and Willow smiled and hugged him.

“Not for a bad reason today,” said Willow. “It’s… an idea I had.” And now her heart was racing for an entirely different reason. She’d been so sure about this last night, watching Jay sleep beside her, but now, in the light of day, it seemed stupid. Too much. She was always too much and it wasn’t enough and…

But now, Jay started peppering kisses over Willow’s face and neck, his only goal to make her laugh and squirm out of his embrace. Which she did, before his questing fingers could dig into her sides.

“Okay, okay, I’ll tell you,” said Willow, still grinning. The laughter had definitely loosened her nerves, as Jay knew it would. “There’s this tradition on Jorvik.” She could feel her heart pounding in her throat, so she took a deep breath before she continued. “Every spring, young couples or friends or just riders with their horses go up a trail in the Firgrove mountains to tie a red string together. It’s based off a human tradition that if two people are destined to be together, they’ll be connected by a red string. The string can tangle or stretch, but never break. I just thought it might be nice if we did it, you know?” She tucked a lock of blue hair behind her ear, finally looking up at Jay. She’d never seen his eyes so wide. He looked starstruck, which he often did because so many things in Jorvik amazed him like this.

“That sounds amazing,” said Jay, grinning as he took Willow’s hands in his own. “When can we leave?” As Willow laughed at his enthusiasm, her anxiety left her like steam rising from a lake.

“As soon as we have breakfast,” said Willow. Jay grinned, and Willow felt, once again, like everything would be okay.

Once breakfast had been eaten, the two left, taking Brownie and Rune, the two mistfoxes, along with them. The foxes darted between the horses’ hooves, though they were never in any danger. Atlas, Willow’s Clydesdale gifted to her by Louisa for her birthday, and Moo, Jay’s Chincoteague pony named after what he called cows, were as gentle as lambs. That was half the reason they’d been selected for today’s ride, the other reason being that now Willow was the tall one while Jay was the small one.

“Have you ever done this before?” Jay asked, looking around the small campsite area where the trail began while Willow read the noticeboard that had been set up.

“Hm? No,” said Willow, a brief pang of sadness at the memory of Kai being quickly replaced by pure love as she caught sight of Jay.

“Then I am honoured to be your true love,” said Jay. Willow grinned, looking away so that she wouldn’t cry. To distract herself, she dismounted Atlas to grab two red ribbons from the barrel placed beside the noticeboard. She handed one to Jay before swinging herself back up into the saddle.

“Well, let’s see what dangers await,” said Willow. But she hoped that, just once, luck would be kind to them. She’d heard stories about things falling from the sky, rockslides, feral wolves, even cars driving around up here and random trees falling. She hoped that none of that would happen today. Jay had even brought his notebook to sketch things at random points along the trail. Which he was already doing even before they set out, sketching one of the poles that held a red ribbon and torch to mark the trail. Willow smiled at the sight.

At the first stop along the trail, where the road forked before coming together again, Jay insisted on dismounting to sketch a patch of pretty yellow flowers. Willow giggled but joined him, kicking her shoes off and digging her toes into the soil to encourage more flowers to bloom around her. Jay gasped and then quickly sketched this as well, right up to Willow’s smiling face.

They continued up the trail, taking it slow if only because Jay insisted on stopping to sketch every flower. But Willow had planned for this- that was why she’d decided to make a day of it. And seeing Jay so happy ignited a happiness in her that hadn’t been there for so long.

“This looks like a nice place for lunch,” said Jay as they came open a shaded spot about halfway up the trail. Seeing the view, Willow agreed- she could see all of Silverglade from up here. Maybe not as much as could be seen from the cliff at the very top of the mountain, but that was more Lisa and Louisa’s thing. Besides, this place was big enough for a picnic, big enough to spread out and even lie down without worrying about falling off the edge of a very high cliff.

“Good thing I brought lunch,” said Willow, laughing as she patted Atlas’ bulging saddlebags.

Jay found a nice patch of grass for them to sit on, which Willow added a few flowers to, along with a little clover to make it more comfortable. Most people brought a picnic blanket for picnics, but Willow liked to get close to the element that she had power over. It helped keep her calm- after all, that was why she had the vine tattoo twining up one of her legs. And it was very nice, to sit surrounded by the scents of the best spring flowers and the scent of greenery. Plus, Jay liked to draw it.

They ate their lunch, just some simple sandwiches that were still delicious, while overlooking Silverglade. This was Willow’s home, even if she had been born in the city. She loved the city, yes, but… Jorvik was beautiful in many places. Especially in the Silverglade region. She could even see some runestones, and some very distant sheep that looked like ants from all the way up here. 

“I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this view,” said Jay, and Willow knew, without having to look, that he was talking about the actual view. Though he had used that line on her before. Many times, and it always made her blush and feel all warm inside.

“You should draw it,” said Willow, beginning to feel a little drowsy after lunch and the climb. And from growing extra flowers purely for Jay’s enjoyment. That and how early she’d woken this morning, anxiety waking her this time for the sole purpose of being nervous about today. But it was fine. Things could still be fine, and they’d continue to be fine. It was so easy to believe that with Jay by her side.

“You can take a nap,” said Jay. “This sketch might take a little longer anyway.”

“I give you permission to draw me like one of your French girls,” Willow murmured, her eyes closing as she got comfortable on the grass. She didn’t even care about getting grass stains on her clothing, not really. But she did smile, knowing that Jay was most likely blushing at her comment. Sometimes he drew her like that, but not often. And usually only to admire her body because he loved her so much.

Jay turned his burning face away from his girlfriend, focusing instead on the view that he was about to sketch. He knew that Willow’s brother Shane photographed Jorvik to capture its beauty, and Louisa’s wife Lisa wrote songs while Louisa sometimes turned her hand to stories when she was feeling so inspired. But Jay preferred to sketch Jorvik, sometimes filling his sketches with colour but usually just leaving them in black and white. For this sketch, though, he knew that it needed colour. Blue for the sky, the slightest touch of grey in the clouds (though the rain had stayed away today, mercifully), grey for the stones (darker for the runestones with just a touch of purple) and of course the luscious greenery that surrounded them and spread out across the countryside. This was his home now. Yes, he missed his old home and would love to save it, but… Jorvik was home. Willow was home. It was what his heart had chosen. And he was so very looking forward to tying his red ribbon with Willow’s.

Thinking of her, Jay glanced over at Willow after finishing his drawing and had to grin at the sight that greeted him. Willow looked more peaceful in sleep than she ever did in her waking hours. Her guards fell away, leaving her soft, gentle, no hard edges. Jay knew that it was the influence of the surrounding nature that did it, and maybe that was the real reason why he’d stopped to sketch so many flowers and trees and birds and even the odd squirrel or two. Atlas grazed with Moo, one tall and one small, and Jay wanted to sketch them too. But first, he had to capture the flowers that had sprouted around Willow, curling through her fingers, poking up through her hair. Jay added colour to this one too, the blue of Willow’s hair, the green of the grass, the colours of the flowers, the pale purple fading to blue of her dress over black leggings. Even her scars that Willow had once tried so hard to hide. But she didn’t seem to care so much now. Maybe she had bigger things to worry about. Or maybe she’d just accepted them as part of her, embraced them. She even planned on working some of the scars into her future tattoos.

Willow stayed perfectly still when she woke up, hearing the scratch of Jay’s pencil moving across the paper in a sketch. But she felt much better already- naps usually had that effect on her. She felt a little like a cat, basking in the sunshine like this. But then, she felt a little wet nose touching her hand.

“Brownie,” Willow grumbled, opening her eyes to look at her mistfox. Then, she turned her eyes to Jay.

“Oh, I’ve finished your sketch,” said Jay. “I’m drawing those two now.” He nodded towards Atlas and Moo, who were dozing off in the shade.

“Could’ve told me,” said Willow, sitting up and stretching her limbs out.

“You looked so comfortable,” said Jay. Willow only smiled at him.

But Brownie looked excited, running around in circles and giving off tiny yaps. Willow chuckled and got to her feet, brushing grass off her dress and leaving behind flowers that outlined her sleeping form. She followed Brownie up a little slope, noticing that the little fox stopped to look up at her, wagging his tail.

“Whatcha got there?” Willow asked, kneeling down beside the rock that Brownie had stopped in front of. Brownie gave a little whine, moving his head to gesture behind the rock. Willow followed his motion and gasped in delight when she saw what her fox had found. Behind the rock was a little group of tiny mistfox cubs.

Before Willow knew it, tears were rolling down her cheeks as she cooed over the little babies.

“Jay, come look!” Willow called softly. Jay’s brow creased with concern as he put his sketchbook away and rose to his feet to walk over to his girlfriend.

“Willow? What’s wrong…” Jay trailed off as he saw it too, and now he was almost crying at the little bundle of babies.

“I want a baby,” said Willow through her tears. She reached for one of the foxes, but wasn’t sure if she should touch. Didn’t some animals abandon their babies if they smelled like humans? She couldn’t see an adult fox around, but maybe it was out hunting.

“Let’s ask Kit if she has any babies to adopt out,” said Jay. Of course he remembered the name of the woman with the foxes.

“Yes,” said Willow, nodding. “Draw them so I always remember them.”

“Anything for you,” said Jay, giving her a kiss. And, while Jay drew the babies, Willow stayed back and petted Brownie and Rune, who also wriggled into her lap when he saw that Brownie was getting attention.

“Okay, I think we’ve taken long enough to reach the summit,” said Willow with a laugh once the babies had been captured in all of their cuteness. “Let’s go.”

“We probably should tie the ribbons the same day we got them,” Jay agreed, nodding. “But we can come up here again, right?”

“Of course, the trail’s always going to be here,” said Willow.

“I’m never sure with this place,” said Jay. Willow laughed.

“Fair point,” said Willow. “But I am going to make sure that this place is always here.”

“Thank you,” said Jay, taking her hand and kissing her cheek.

With the knowledge that there would be more trail rides in the future, it didn’t take long for the two of them to reach the top of the mountain. For a moment, Jay and Willow just stood there, looking out at the spectacular view. But then, seeing the many ribbons hung up around the campsite, Jay pulled his red ribbon out of his pocket.

“Let’s tie the knot?” Jay asked. Willow blushed.

“That’s what the saying is,” said Willow, smiling as she got her own ribbon out of her saddlebag.

Together, the two of them tied their ribbons to the strings above the campsite. Willow caught Jay’s eyes as she did so, and noticed that they gleamed with tears.

“By Aideen, I love you,” said Jay, pulling Willow towards him and pressing a kiss to her lips.

“I love you too,” said Willow, returning the kiss and wrapping her arms around him. She felt like she’d taken a huge step in her relationship, bigger than even the promise ring. To many people, the Red String Trail Ride was a tradition as symbolic and respected as marriage. And she knew that if she explained it to Jay, he’d only love it more.

For the first time, Willow felt safe in her relationship. Loved. She knew that Jay would never hurt her, certainly never leave her, that he would love her far more than she ever felt she deserved. For once, the great love she felt for someone was not only appreciated but reciprocated. And if life had led her to this, here, with Jay, then… maybe it had all been worth it.


End file.
